Ballers, Gamers and Scoundrels

How many times can Dwayne Wade fall down and still get up? Pat Riley isn’t willing to find out, apparently.

Word was stirring late last week that Riley, the Heat head coach and president, was trying to shut Wade down. In the midst of this nightmare of a season, Riley wasn’t willing to risk any more injury to his young star. Today, it became officials -the Heat announced that Wade is done for the season.

The league’s fifth leading scorer has been nursing a sore right knee all season - possibly a residual of the surgery Wade had on his left knee and left shoulder last May. He missed 31 games last season and, with today’s news will have missed the same number of games this season. Not long ago, Wade was showcased in a famous Converse ad touting his toughness. Watch it here:

No one doubts Wade’s guts, certainly not me. But I’ve long wondered - as I watched Wade fall down so many times - just how long he’d get up. Or how long he’d last.

Two years ago, he was one-third of the three amigos that was rescuing the NBA from its seemingly interminable malaise. Along with LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, they were the bright stars that were supposed to make us stop missing Michael Jordan and lure a new wave of fans to the game. Wade did his part, leading the Heat to the 2006 NBA title, and - as a tither and a young, married father - he was the kind of young man fans wanted their sons to be.

But the left knee and shoulder injury clearly affected him. And while he was as affective and aggressive this season as he’d, the season’s toll (on and off the court) was obvious - on his body, mind and heart. Last fall, the blogosphere was abuzz with rumors that Wade and his wife, Siohvaughn, might divorce. They have not.

For all of those reasons, shutting down is the right thing for Wade’s long-term viability. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally.

It’s also the right thing for the Heat, who are still hoping Wade will be their cornerstone into the next decade.

And Lord knows it’s the right thing for the league to allow him to sit, no matter whether or not Wade has a specific ,traumatic injury that prevents him from playing. (He played 39 minutes last Saturday against Atlanta.)

Later this week, Wade is slate to undergo a new, noninvasive treatment called OssaTron, a high-tech form of shock therapy. Today, Wade said, ‘The knee will be hit by shock waves, electrical shock waves. It’s actually a pretty painful experience.”

Afterward, Wade will limited to passive exercise for a month. before being able to return to basketball.

But here’s where it gets dicey: Wade says he still was to be part of the summer Olympic basketball team, which is shaping up as the for USA squad that just might be truly capable of winning a gold medal. Like Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, who’s out for the season with a foot injury but might be pressured into anchoring the Chinese national team’s home-turf quest for gold, Wade wants to represent his country on what looks to be the best USA squad in years.

Being somewhat of a Dream Team snob (I covered the original DT and had loathed anyone using the moniker to describe any of the pretenders that were cobbled together for the last several Olympics), I am actually cooling with calling USA Basketball’s new entry Dream Team II (For Real). Their displays during qualifying rounds show a lethal combination of talent and savvy regarding the international style of play.

They will win the gold medal in Beijing in August.

But Dwyane Wade should not be there. He should dispel any thoughts of joining LeBron, Carmelo, Dwight Howard and America’s other young guns as they seek to restore order to the basketball world - no matter how difficult it might be.

Sitting out now is the right thing to do. Sitting out Beijing is the smart thing to do. After all, no one knows just how many falls D-Wade’s body has left.

I couldn’t help but think of Martha Stewart as I heard the fate levied against Marion Jones. For pleading guilty to two counts of perjury - Note to all: Lying to the Feds is a major no-no - she was sentenced to six months in prison, two years probation and 800 hours of community service, working with young athletes to warn them against the use of drugs.

Three-and-a-half years ago, Stewart, the media mogul, was given five months in prison and two years’ probation for obstruction of justice and fibbing to federal investigators about her sale of ImClone Systems stock in late 2001. She was also given five months of home confinement after her release and dinged $30,000. The sentence was the minimum allowed under federal guidelines, while the fine was the ma.

As we all know now, Jones’ troubles stem primarily from her decision to use steroids prior to the 2000 Olympics, where she won three gold medals, two bronze and solidified her status as the darling of American sports. She graced the kind of magazine covers that rarely featured female jocks, and she was shot with a stylish elegance that celebrated her beauty, power and grace.

I thought of Martha Stewart for a couple of reasons. I wondered whether someone who had already lost everything had already endured enough. Her medals have been stripped. Once worth millions, her bank accounts are empty. She’s lost three homes, including one occupied by her mother. Her name purged from the Olympic records. And her name? Sullied perhaps beyond recovery. Did she deserve more (even if a mere month more) than a woman who committed the same crime but who was worth a reported $335 million on the day of her conviction and $640 million today?

It doesn’t seem so. Would not six months of house arrest not have sufficed? Especially for a woman, a first-time offender, with two children - one four, the other just seven months old? But I guess all bad choices are not created equal. Both women indeed made bad choices - choices driven by greed and ambition. And as celebrities, both women were partly punished to serve as “examples” to the rest of us - at at least to other celebs, who don’t seem to be getting the message.

But at least Jones can also take solace in this: She’s now at the bottom. She’s now been left only with the essence of who she is as a mother, a wife (looks like she finally chose right in this area) and as a woman. She’s just 32 years old, and has a lifetime left to write a new script.

That is perhaps was she should draw from Stewart, beginning with the thought that her time served can also be a time of renewal. Tomorrow should start the day she turns herself in to federal authorities, not when they release her. No doubt Stewart did deals in prison. She did not stop doing what she does. And neither should Marion Jones.

In our era of Steroid Madness, Jones is just one of many who fell pray to the lure the short-term fix, one that undermanned every moment of hard work she endured en route achieve greatness. But for her at least, that’s done.

All that’s left is for Jones to fold herself back into the starting blocks, bow her head and prepare for the next race. Not as an athlete. That race is over. But she’s just 32 years old. The same power, grace and beauty that made Jones the fastest woman in the world should serve well on another track.

So Marion: On your mark…

Just kidding, of course. So my former colleagues at SI can relax. Besides, unlike TIME mag, which awards its Person of the Year to the person (or thing) that had the greatest impact on our lives (for good or disastrous), SI’s SOY is the person (or persons) who most embodies the spirit of sportsmanship blah, blah blah. So no worries, the feds will not be getting an amphora for their trophy case. (In truth, if the award doesn’t go to Tony Dungy there ought to be an investigation.)

Yet there’s no doubt that no one was more impactful (or annoying, depending on your perspective) on sports this year than the feds. They spent millions of your tax dollars chasing down and building cases at those notorious threats to society: Barry Bonds, Michael Vick, Tim Donaghy and Marion Jones.

Don’t get me wrong: Vick broke the law. Done. Marion Jones lied to grand jury. Done. Tim Donaghy danced with the mob and threatened the NBA’s very core. Done

Barry Bonds? We’ll see.

In the end, what will we have learned? How will our games have benefited from the millions spent on bringing these notorious law-breakers to justice.

Well, we learned dog fighting is heinous and costly. We learned lying to the feds is stupid. We learned that leaving voice mails with the mob is stupid.

And oh yes, we learned that athletes are human. They’re they’re far from perfect. Like the rest of us.

Other than that, I’m not sure if I’m getting my money’s worth.

Legal experts are scratching their heads over the recent indictment of Barry Bonds for perjury and obstruction of justice. Four years after he testified before a federal grand jury called to “investigate” the use of steroids in baseball, saying he did not knowingly use performance enhancing drugs, what do they know that they did not know a few months ago when he was chasing Hank Aaron?

Is this just a case of the feds having to show something for their four years in our pockets?

What is their motivation? And what purpose has been served this year - besides saving the lives of who knows how many dogs; a worthy feat in my book - by their high-profile chases?

If you’ve been reading me for awhile you know I loathe conspiracy theorists. But you’ve got to wonder if it’s the only logical card to play after Bonds was singled out (and let’s stop fooling ourselves, this has all been about Bonds from the beginning) and after looking at the hue of most of the high-profile targets of their efforts this year.

The Feds: Sportsmen of the Year.

Congrats, fellas.

Now, go away.

I thought it was flaxseed oil. Thanks to Marion Jones, that line is destined to go down in sports infamy. (It’s not nearly as good as the all-time got-busted line uttered by another Marion: The B—- set me up!” But we’ll take it.) That’s what Jones says she told federal authorities years ago when asked if she’d taken “the clear,” a performance-enhancing drug. Yesterday the Washington Post told us what we long suspected. Now, she says she was lying.

And it’s sad. Today, Jones poured her heart out to the feds in White Plains, NY. She said she lied to them about taking “the clear” prior to the 2000 Olympics, and lied to them about her role in a check-cashing-money laundering scheme hatched by her former coach Trevor Graham.

It was sad, really. She was so beautiful on the track. She was the first runner who made you watch since Florence Griffith Joyner. I met MJ a few times, and each time she seemed a bit of a contradiction. She was a gifted competitor, no doubt. But she also seemed extremely vulnerable. Easily influenced.

When I think of the men on her life - Graham, Tim Montgomery (the father of her son), her former husband disgraced shot putter C.J. Hunter and others - I envision a woman who embraced then listened to all the wrong voices.

Clearly she should not be absolved for her actions. She’ll return to court on January 11 and be sentenced for today’s confessions. She could get six months in prison, or more. The International Olympic Committee has reportedly said it would ask Jones to return the five medals she won in Sydney.

In a tearful public confession today, Jones said we had “every right” to be mad at her. She also said she would retire from track & field.

I’m more sad than mad.

But perhaps this is the beginning of the end for the lying. To me, that’s worse that the drug use itself. Athletes in various sports have simply been lying to us. They’ve not only comprised their sport but they’ve lied. I hope MJ gets the minimum sentence - if any sentence at all. Instead,laud her for being the first superstar athlete in what is clearly the Steroid Era in sports to tell the truth.

Maybe others will follow. Tell the truth so we can all begin to move on